Policeman, Six Suspected Militants Killed In Shoot-Out In Northwest Pakistan

Policeman, Six Suspected Militants Killed In Shoot-Out In Northwest Pakistan

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A raid by security forces on a militant hideout in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar has triggered a 17-hour firefight in which a police officer and at least six suspected militants were killed.

The Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack in an e-mail sent to RFE/RL and said six of its fighters were killed during the shoot-out.

Shaukat Yousafzai, a government spokesman in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, said on April 16 that police and commandos on April 15 surrounded a house in the Hayatabad area of Peshawar, after being tipped off about planned attacks.

Yousafzai said the suspects opened fire on security forces when asked to surrender. The suspects also threw grenades, which killed an officer, police said.

The operation ended when the three-story residential building collapsed.

Shafqat Malik, chief of Peshawar's bomb disposal squad, said that the militants had planted a motorcycle bomb at the entrance of the house and linked it to explosives throughout the building.

A controlled detonation of the motorcycle device carried out by the bomb disposal squad triggered the explosives inside, which brought the building down, Malik said.

During the stand-off, local residents were evacuated with the help of security personnel and rescuers.

Peshawar is the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Dawn

Radio Mashaal was launched in January 2010 in order to counter a growing number of Islamic extremist radio stations in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (now Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the border with Afghanistan.